*Get "Hammer House of Horror- The Complete Series" on Amazon here*
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This first episode of the infamous British television series doesn't score nearly enough scares.
Film composer David (Jon Finch) is stuck home alone at the farmhouse he shares with his actress wife Mary (Prunella Gee), who is away on a shoot (in actuality, a rendezvous with a lover). On a dark and stormy night, he discovers Lucinda (Patricia Quinn) hiding in his barn. She claims to be a three hundred year old witch who permeates herself into both David and Mary's lives.
Despite being about an hour long, the story drags for the middle twenty minutes after starting off so well. The small cast is good, the farmhouse setting is flawless, Leaver's direction is adequate (despite a number of goofs along the way), but Read's script shoots its twist right away and tedium sets in. Luckily, there aren't a lot of embarrassing special effects around, but watching David become obsessed with Lucinda while Mary helplessly gawks is a bore. By the time the climax kicks in, the cast suddenly become very melodramatic and the script hurries to a conclusion without offering any answers as to why the first fifty-two minutes of the broadcast even occurred.
I used to love watching this show in my junior high school years (what's not to love- nudity AND horror!) but without remembering specific episodes. Hopefully, as I work my way through the series, it will all come back to me.
-Unrated, contains physical violence, gore, some female nudity, some sexual content, some sexual references, adult situations
